On Wednesday, Michael Jackson's three children were assigned a new guardian as part of a growing power struggle over the late entertainer's multimillion-dollar estate. The new guardian, Tito Jackson, was appointed at his request after a week of conflicting reports...
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Ridgewood Estate Planning Blog
Irrevocable life insurance trusts: a useful estate planning tool
On Behalf of The Manna Helmy Law Group | Jul 26, 2012 | Estate Planning, Trusts
Trusts can be greatly useful tools when it comes to estate planning. Part of making use of trusts for estate planning is determining what financial vehicles will be used to fund them. One option is to make use of life insurance for this purpose. One particular option...
Estate planning should include consideration of funding for long-term care, P.2
On Behalf of The Manna Helmy Law Group | Jul 18, 2012 | Medicaid Planning / Nursing Home Planning
In out last post, we began looking at the importance of funding for long-term care. For some people, this will entail purchasing long-term care insurance and setting aside funds years in advance. For many others, there will be no planning but only responding to the...
Estate planning should include consideration of funding for long-term care, P.1
On Behalf of The Manna Helmy Law Group | Jul 16, 2012 | Estate Planning
A recent article in Forbes magazine took a look at various financial risks, 13 to be precise, that can be avoided. The various risks touched on occur because no action was taken, insufficient action was taken, or too much action was taken. Interestingly, and...
Estate planning ensures assets go where you want them to go at your death
On Behalf of The Manna Helmy Law Group | Jul 14, 2012 | Estate Planning
In a recent article written for Forbes, Deborah Jacobs spoke about the topic of who needs estate planning. As she noted, there are a number of people out there who tend to write off the idea of estate planning, thinking that it doesn't apply to them, that it isn't...
2013 estate tax changes could impact succession planning for family businesses
On Behalf of The Manna Helmy Law Group | Jul 14, 2012 | Inheritance And Estate Tax
As our regular readers know, big changes are presumably in store for estate tax law for 2013. While each taxpayer currently has a $5.12 million lifetime federal estate/gift tax exemption, that number could drastically decrease if Congress doesn't take action by the...
In New Jersey, domestic partners exempt from state inheritance tax
On Behalf of The Manna Helmy Law Group | Jun 28, 2012 | Inheritance And Estate Tax
Same sex couples in New Jersey, while they do have some of the same advantages as heterosexual couples, face unique challenges and issues that heterosexual couples do not. One example of this is that New Jersey, as our regular readers know, imposes an estate tax where...
Estate of NY copper heiress subject of two separate disputes
On Behalf of The Manna Helmy Law Group | Jun 26, 2012 | Estate Planning, Wills
The court appointed public administrator for the deceased copper heiress Huguette Clark is reportedly seeking to have recipients return $37 million in gifts. According to the administrator, Clark's caretakers took advantage of her feebleness and exerted undue...
What to do when you are name executor of an estate, P.2
On Behalf of The Manna Helmy Law Group | Jun 22, 2012 | Probate
In our last post, we began speaking about some of the steps one will need to take in winding up an estate. As we noted, the process can be overwhelming for those who've never encountered it, but a bit of planning ahead and knowing who to turn to for help can be a...
What to do when you are name executor of an estate, P.1
On Behalf of The Manna Helmy Law Group | Jun 21, 2012 | Probate
Probate refers to the legal process of winding up the estate of a deceased person. Because there are a number of steps to the process and the death of a loved one can be difficult, the probate process can be overwhelming, especially for those who've been appointed as...